Background

The State Water Resources Control Board regulates storm water runoff originating from UCLA. In accordance, UCLA is in the process of developing and refining our current storm water management practices into a comprehensive storm water management program in order to minimize our impact on local waters, in particular, Ballona Creek and the Santa Monica Bay.

UCLA Goals

The goals of UCLA’s Office of Environment Health and Safety are to educate students, staff and faculty on storm water issues in order to effectively change behaviors that contribute to storm water pollution, monitor campus pollutant contributions, detect, investigate and eliminate any sources of campus storm water pollution, and to ensure future construction projects implement measures that reduce campus runoff.

UCLA Challenges

With over 75,000 employees and students at UCLA on a regular basis, we continue to host the largest student population on the smallest acreage of land of any campus in the entire UC system.

Los Angeles boasts an average of 329 sunny days per year, yet in Los Angeles County approximately 100 million gallons of contaminated water and debris drain through the storm drain system each dry day. This would fill the Rose Bowl 1.2 times. On a rainy day, the flow of contaminated water can increase to 10 billion gallons.

UCLA is densely populated and is a highly paved urban environment which can negatively affect water quality by increasing storm water runoff. Polluted storm water from rain events, and non-storm water discharge from sprinklers, outdoor washing activities and illegal dumping of liquid or solid debris into campus streets or storm drains ultimately ends up in the Santa Monica Bay. cleaner, healthier Santa Monica Bay.